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Four commercial airliners were hijacked en route to California from Logan International, Dulles International, and Newark
airports. Each of the airliners had a jet fuel capacity of nearly 24,000 U.S. gallons (91,000 liters). Two of the airliners
were flown into the World Trade Center, one each into the North and South towers, one was flown into the Pentagon, and the
fourth, whose ultimate target was probably either the White House or the U.S. Capitol building, crashed near Shanksville,
Pennsylvania.
* American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767-200 wide-body aircraft, crashed into the northern side of the North Tower
of the World Trade Center (WTC) at 8:46:30 a.m. local time (Eastern Daylight Time, 12:46:30 UTC), hitting at the 94-98th floors.
* United Airlines Flight 175, a Boeing 767-200, crashed into the 78-85th floors of the South Tower at 9:02:59 a.m.
local time (13:02:59 UTC), an event covered live by television broadcasters and amateur filmers from around the world who
had their cameras trained on the buildings after the earlier crash.
* American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757-200, crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37:46 a.m. local time (13:37:46 UTC).
* United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757-200,crashed in a field in southwest Pennsylvania just outside of Shanksville,
about 150 miles (240 km) northwest of Washington, D.C., at 10:03:11 a.m. local time (14:03:11 UTC). The crash in Pennsylvania
resulted from the passengers of the airliner attempting to regain control from the hijackers.
Three buildings in the World Trade Center Complex collapsed due to structural failure on the day of the attack. The south
tower (2 WTC) fell at approximately 9:59 a.m., after burning for 56 minutes in a fire caused by the impact of United Airlines
Flight 175. The north tower (1 WTC) collapsed at 10:28 a.m., after burning for approximately 102 minutes. A third building,
7 World Trade Center (7 WTC) collapsed at 5:20 p.m. as a result of debris damage from 1 WTC and subsequent fire.
Tommy Dunn, a firefighter on the scene described the collapse of the tower. "I looked up and I could very clearly
see that the entire top section of the tower had begun to collapse and was falling down on us. … The best I can
compare it to is when you were a kid and you were in the water and you ducked down, down, down and let a wave come over your
head. That's what the debris was like. It was spread so far that you were not gonna outrun this."
During the hijacking of the airplanes, some passengers and crew members were able to make phone calls using the cabin
GTE airphone service and mobile phones.They reported that several hijackers were aboard each plane.
The terrorists reportedly took control of the aircraft by using knives and box-cutter knives to kill flight attendants
and at least one pilot or passenger, including the captain of Flight 11, John Ogonowski.
Some form of noxious chemical spray, such as tear gas or pepper spray, was reported to have been used on American 11 and
United 175 to keep passengers out of the first-class cabin.Bomb threats were made on three of the aircraft, but not on American
77. According to the 9/11 Commission Report, the bombs were probably fake. The 9/11 Commission established that two of the
hijackers had recently purchased Leatherman multi-function hand tools.
A taxicab was hit by a lightpole as American Airlines Flight 77 passed over Washington Boulevard and crashed into the
Pentagon.
A taxicab was hit by a lightpole as American Airlines Flight 77 passed over Washington Boulevard and crashed into the
Pentagon.
On United Airlines Flight 93, black box recordings revealed that crew and passengers attempted to seize control of the
plane from the hijackers after learning through phone calls that similarly hijacked planes had been crashed into buildings
that morning. According to the transcript of Flight 93's recorder, one of the hijackers gave the order to roll the plane once
it became evident that they would lose control of the plane to the passengers. Soon afterward, the aircraft crashed into a
field near Shanksville in Stonycreek Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, at 10:03:11 a.m. local time (14:03:11 UTC).
Al-Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed mentioned in a 2002 interview with an Al Jazeera journalist that Flight 93's target
was the United States Capitol,which was given the code name "the Faculty of Law."
The attacks created widespread confusion across the United States. All international civilian air traffic was banned from
landing on US soil for three days;aircraft already in flight were either turned back or redirected to airports in Canada or
Mexico. Unconfirmed and often contradictory reports were aired and published throughout the day.One of the most prevalent
of these reported that a car bomb had been detonated at the U.S. State Department's headquarters, the Harry S Truman Building
in Foggy Bottom, Washington, D.C. This erroneous report, picked up by the wire services, was reported on CNN and in a number
of newspapers published that day. Soon after reporting for the first time on the Pentagon crash, CNN and other media also
briefly reported that a fire had broken out on the Washington Mall. Another report went out on the AP wire, claiming that
a Delta 767—Flight 1989—had been hijacked. This report, too, turned out to be in error; the plane was
briefly thought to represent a hijack risk, but it responded to controllers and landed safely in Cleveland, Ohio.
Chairman Rudman of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) Committee released in a press statement that it was not necessary
to activate the EAS due to near immediate coverage by News Media. Rudman kept the 34 main PEP stations on high alert if needed,
but as time passed, using the EAS was no longer necessary.
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